Drive-Away Dolls, the first feature-length Coen brothers film to be made without the Joel half of the storied duo, has finally hit theaters, proving once and for all what happens when you stuff a B-movie full of the usual stylistic suspects of the Coens’ toolbox; specifically, you enamor some and disappoint others.
But when it came to playing ball with the marquee, it was Ethan Coen and his wife Tricia Cooke (who made the film together) who had to contend with the biggest disappointment of all. Speaking recently in an interview with IndieWire, the filmmakers revealed the tragic compromise they had to make with distributor Focus Features to get the okay to put the film in cinemas: ditch Drive-Away Dolls’ original name, Drive-Away Dykes.
Cooke, who’s credited as a writer, producer, and editor on the film, called the condition “the biggest heartbreak,” having noted elsewhere in the interview that the name Drive-Away Dykes was first dreamed up by her friend at a lesbian bar back in the year 2000, and now, 24 years later, the rest is officially history.
The two filmmakers still refer to the movie as Drive-Away Dykes in an unofficial capacity, a joint commitment that’s reminiscent of the fluid teamwork the couple had during production, which is a process that Coen is very much used to by now, with the exception of his wife being in place of his brother this time around:
“We think about it as we write the movie together. That’s the beginning of making the movie. We make the movie together, we cut the movie together. And the distinctions between roles, writing, directing, when you’re writing you’re making ‘directorial choices,’ you’re thinking about how the scene is going to play, what it’ll look like, the roles, the function descriptions are all a little artificial. We’re making the movie together, just as me and Joel made movies together.”
Indeed, as far as moot creative writing advice goes, “kill your darlings” is perhaps one of the few worth mastering if you ever hope to fly your highest as an artist, and we now know what was lost in the pursuit of getting Drive-Away Dolls (ahem, Drive-Away Dykes) to wider audiences. Indeed, Dykes walked so Dolls could run, and may we never forget what was taken from us.
(featured image: Focus Features)
